“Doth the water of the river come to the very foot of these logs?” he asked, unable to determine in the darkness.

“No, Monsieur, the earth slopes downward for some feet, yet the current is at this bank, and gives much depth of water at the shore.”

“But of what width is the strip of earth between?”

“Perhaps the length of a tall man.”

“Saint Guise! ’tis well I thought to ask!” he explained jauntily.  “And now, Mademoiselle, if you will but kindly hold this coat and sword, I shall strive to show you how highly I value the prize offered, and what a French gentleman can do for love.”

I fully grasped his purpose now, and even as he turned toward her, holding out the valuables he hesitated to lose, I scaled the low barrier in my front, planted my feet firmly between the pointed stakes, and sprang boldly into the darkness.

CHAPTER XIV

DARKNESS AND SURPRISE

It was a greater distance to the water than I had supposed, but I struck at last fairly enough, and went down until I thought I should never come up again.  As I rose to the surface and shook the moisture from my face and ears, a light laugh rang out high above me, and Mademoiselle’s clear voice cried mockingly: 

“The backwoodsman has taken the first trick, Monsieur.”

I saw De Croix’s body dart, like a black arrow, far out into the air, and come sweeping down.  He struck to my left, and a trifle behind me; but I waited not to learn just how.  With lusty strokes I struck out for the north shore.  It was a hard swim, for my deerskins held the water like so many bags, and the current, though not rapid, was sufficiently strong to make me fight valiantly for every foot of way.  I came out, panting heavily, upon a low bank of soft mud, and crept cautiously up under the black shadow of some low bushes growing there.  I took time, as I rested, to glance back, hoping thus to learn more of the direction I should follow; for the Kinzie light was no longer visible, and my struggle with the current had somewhat bewildered me.  I neither saw nor heard anything of De Croix; but the flame of the candle gleaming through the narrow slits of the block-house told me clearly where it stood, while a wild yelling farther to the southward convinced me that our Indian besiegers were yet astir and concocting some fresh deviltry at their camp.  With a half-uttered prayer that they might all be there, I hastily pressed the water from my soggy clothes and plunged forward into the unknown darkness.  A big cottonwood, as from its shape I judged it to be, rose against the stars in my front,—­a dim outline swaying slightly in the westerly wind, and I took it as my first guide-mark, moving over the rough unknown ground as rapidly and silently as possible.